Fractional project manager salary · pro-rata, our arithmetic

What a fractional project manager earns, pro-rata of the permanent salary

No independent UK source publishes a fractional project manager day rate.

The figures here are the permanent project manager salary from Robert Half spread across working days — our arithmetic, a pro-rata floor for comparison, not a market rate.

On that basis, the fractional project manager salary for one day a week at Robert Half’s £57,000 median comes to £11,960 a year (our arithmetic).

A real fee is whatever the project manager quotes: a day rate, the days and the notice.

When you hire a fractional project manager through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Brief us on a fractional project manager →See the roles

How a brief runswhat we undertake

01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

£57,000

Permanent project manager salary, median · range £45,500–£68,250, national

Robert Half, 2026

£260

Day equivalent · £57,000 ÷ 220 working days, to the nearest £10

Our arithmetic

£11,960

One day a week, a year · £260 × 46 weeks

Our arithmetic

3–5

Shortlist · with day rate, availability and IR35 set out

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional project manager

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Fractional Project Manager candidates, their day rates and availability.

0115 minutes, video or phone
02We scope the role and the days a week
03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs

Prefer email? Use the booking page →

Pick a day that suits · live availability

Open the booking calendar →

On the board · last 3 months

Fractional Project manager jobs on the board

2 on the board · 2 confirmed open

Browse every role on the board →

Delivery and operations roles on the board

Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a Fractional Project Manager brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.

01/ the role

How a fractional project manager is paid, and why this page uses pro-rata

A project manager delivers one defined change and then closes it.

The Association for Project Management says project management has final deliverables constrained to a finite timescale and budget.

A fractional project manager runs that work for part of the week, often on a smaller project that does not need someone every day, and invoices for the days worked.

No independent UK source publishes what a fractional project manager charges.

So this page does one thing it can stand behind: it spreads the permanent salary across working days and labels the result as our arithmetic.

A part-week employee is a different arrangement.

A part-time worker must not be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker on pay rates, pension or holidays (GOV.UK).

A fractional project manager on a day rate through their own company has none of those behind the rate.

A pro-rata figure is a floor for comparison, not a quote.

A day rate has none of an employee’s pension, paid holiday or employer’s National Insurance behind it, so a quote and a pro-rata figure measure different things.

Ask for the quote, then compare.

02/ scope

How to hire a fractional project manager

1. Define the project and its end

Write down the deliverables, the budget and the date the project closes.

Then estimate the days a week it needs at each stage.

A project that needs someone every day needs a full-time project manager, permanent or interim.

2. Ask for quotes, not a benchmark

Ask each candidate for a day rate, the days a week or month, the notice period and which meetings and reports the days cover.

Compare the quotes with the pro-rata figures below.

3. Match the record to the project

Ask for outcomes from comparable projects: delivered to time, to budget, to the quality agreed.

The APM’s Chartered Project Professional standard is one marker of experience; for public-sector work, ask how the candidate has worked to GovS 002, the project delivery functional standard.

What we do on a fractional project brief

We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent delivery and operations people, and non-executive directors.

We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.

For roles on the board, see fractional project manager jobs.

03/ the week

How a week divides.

Part of a week is the point of the model: the days you buy are yours, the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week and the week redraws.

Days a week for your company2 days

Your companyAnother clientA third client

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Illustration only: one way a fractional project manager’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.

04/ the board

What the board holds.

A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.

On this board, last 90 days · 2 roles · Fractional Project manager

Engagement

Fractional1
Interim1

Days a week

Stated in the posting1
Not stated1

Day rate

Verified rate0
Estimated (est)0
Rate not stated2

Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)

Remote0
Hybrid0
On-site0
Not classified2

Newest posting on the board: 2 Sept 2026.

05/ the route

Fractional, interim or permanent?

Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.

How much of the week does the work fill?

Is there a fixed end or a programme?

Does the seat sit on the board for years?

Is the need now, or can it wait for a search?

The route · Fractional

A fractional project manager.

The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.

A fractional project manager holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.

The fractional project manager route Talk it through

06/ rates by stage

Fractional project manager salary pro-rata, our arithmetic

Permanent base salaries from Robert Half’s 2026 guide (national range and median, and the London median), spread across working days. Our arithmetic: salary ÷ 220 working days = the day equivalent, rounded to the nearest £10; that day figure × 46 weeks × 1, 2 or 3 days a week. A comparison floor, not a market rate and not a quote.

Permanent figureSalaryDay equivalent1 day a week, a year2 days a week, a year3 days a week, a yearSource

Project manager, national median£57,000£260£11,960£23,920£35,880Robert Half, 2026 · our arithmetic

Project manager, bottom of the national range£45,500£210£9,660£19,320£28,980Robert Half, 2026 · our arithmetic

Project manager, top of the national range£68,250£310£14,260£28,520£42,780Robert Half, 2026 · our arithmetic

Project manager, London median£77,500£350£16,100£32,200£48,300Robert Half, 2026 · our arithmetic

07/ economics

A day rate is not a salary: what sits on each side

An employer must pay into a workplace pension for an employee it automatically enrols (GOV.UK), and pays employer’s National Insurance and holiday on top of the salary.

A fractional project manager’s day rate carries none of that: their own company funds its pension, holidays, insurance and the days it does not sell.

Tax status turns on how the engagement runs, not on the title or the contract alone.

Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; HMRC’s guidance for clients sets out which clients count as medium or large.

HMRC’s CEST tool gives its view on a specific engagement, and our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

If their company is registered for VAT, VAT is added to each invoice.

Ask whether a quote includes it.

08/ comparison

Permanent, fractional or interim: what each figure holds

The same seat paid three ways. Only the permanent column has a published salary for this seat; the fractional column is our arithmetic.

PermanentFractionalInterim

Unit of payAnnual salaryDay rate or monthly retainer for agreed daysDay rate for full-time cover over a fixed period

Employer pensionRequired under automatic enrolmentNone in the rateNone in the rate

Paid holidayYesNo: days not worked are not billedNo: days not worked are not billed

VATNoneAdded if their company is VAT-registeredAdded if their company is VAT-registered

Who decides IR35Not applicable: an employeeA medium or large client; otherwise their own companyA medium or large client; otherwise their own company

Where the figures areProject manager salaryThis page (our arithmetic)Interim project manager salary

09/ vetting

How we vet fractional project managers

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify Fractional Project Manager tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING
02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING
03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY
04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5

10/ the day rate

Fractional project manager day rate: what to ask for in a quote

There is no published UK fractional project manager day rate to benchmark against, so the quote is the figure that matters.

Ask for the day rate, the days a week or a month, and the notice either side can give.

Ask how the days flex across the project.

Mobilisation and go-live often need more days than the middle, so agree how extra days are booked and charged before they are needed.

Ask whether the rate includes VAT and travel.

Then set the quote beside the pro-rata figures above: the gap is what the day rate pays for that a salary does not.

11/ the other routes

Salary, day rate or interim cover: comparing like with like

A permanent project manager is paid a salary with pension and employer’s National Insurance on top; see project manager salary for the published bands by sector, region and qualification.

For full-time cover over a fixed period, see interim project manager salary for contract day rates.

For wider context, the Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey puts the IIM’s average interim day rate at £907 across every function, and the average days billed in a year at 148.

Those are interim figures for every function, not a fractional rate for this seat.

If the change is a whole programme rather than one project, see transformation director salary.

12/ questions

Fractional project manager salary FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional project manager.

A fractional project manager has no salary from the client: they are paid a day rate or a retainer. Spreading Robert Half’s £57,000 median permanent salary across 220 working days gives about £260 a day, or £11,960 a year for one day a week over 46 weeks (our arithmetic). That is a comparison floor, not a market rate.

No independent UK source publishes one. The pro-rata day equivalent of the permanent salary runs from about £210 to £310 across Robert Half’s national range, and £350 on its London median (our arithmetic). Ask each candidate for a quote.

The day rate times the days. As a floor for comparison, the pro-rata of the permanent salary is £11,960 a year for one day a week, £23,920 for two and £35,880 for three, on Robert Half’s £57,000 median (our arithmetic). Add VAT if their company is registered. We set out the day rate for every candidate on the shortlist of 3–5.

We take the permanent salary from Robert Half’s 2026 guide, divide it by 220 working days and round to the nearest £10. We then multiply that day figure by 46 weeks and by one, two or three days a week. It is our arithmetic, shown so you can check it.

No source measures it, so we do not say. A day rate pays for things a salary does not, such as their own pension and the days they do not sell, so compare a quote with the pro-rata figure rather than expect one to match the other.

Define the project and its end date, count the days each stage needs, and ask each candidate for a quote. See fractional project manager jobs for the steps.

It depends on how the engagement runs. A medium or large client makes the status determination; a small private-sector client leaves it to the project manager’s own company (HMRC). It is set contract by contract, not person by person.

Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5

Bring the brief. We architect the team.

A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.

Book a call →Submit a brief